http://www.prospect.org/print/V14/2/reich-r.html
It's no accident that Karl Rove was one of Richard Nixon's moles. Using
techniques developed by his first mentor, dirty-tricks strategist Donald
Segretti, Rove infiltrated Democratic organizations on behalf of Nixon's
infamous 1972 campaign. Rove's formidable talents came to the attention of
George Bush Senior, then incoming Republican National Committee chairman,
and the rest is history. Seven presidential campaigns later, Rove
masterminded a deluge of disinformation against John McCain, whose upset
victory in New Hampshire had given him a shot at the Republican nomination.
Word was spread among South Carolina voters that McCain had fathered a
black daughter out of wedlock (McCain had, in fact, adopted a Bangladeshi
girl), that McCain was a homosexual, that McCain's wife had a drug problem
and so on.
Now Rove is masterminding the Bush administration's press strategy, but
it's far more than a press strategy. It's the central strategy for how the
public understands what George W. Bush is doing to and for America. In an
important sense, it is the Bush presidency. Rove's methodology largely
explains why Bush's popularity remains strong despite the unremittingly
awful economy (mounting job losses, weak profits and a three-year
stock-market slide) and despite the shambles of the administration's
foreign policy (Osama bin Laden still at large, al-Qaeda as dangerous as
ever, North Korea more menacing than ever, Israelis and Palestinians as far
away from the bargaining table as ever, anti-Americanism rising across the
globe and a pending war in Iraq lacking clear justification).
A midterm USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll had Bush's job approval rating falling
to 58 percent, dropping below 60 percent for the first time since the
September 11 attacks. Under these circumstances, any other president would
be in danger of losing his job. But Rove has convinced the press, and
therefore the American public, that this presidency is nearly invincible.
He has done it with an ingenious blend of chicanery and obfuscation, aided
by the Democrats' utter incapability of devising a coherent message in
response.
Use whatever excuse is available at the time to justify the
administration's long-term ideological agenda. Rove is adept at framing
Bush's goals as responses to immediate problems, and orchestrating
Republican and right-wing policy experts to give the policies enough patina
of credibility to satisfy the media. A lousy economy? We need to eliminate
taxes on dividends. Never mind that this supposed remedy has nothing to do
with stimulating the economy; it's a "jobs and growth plan for the long
term," whatever that means. The continuing threat of terrorism? We need to
invade Iraq. Forget that Saddam Hussein has for years been at odds with
al-Qaeda or that North Korea is a more potent and dangerous supplier of
nuclear components; we must eliminate Hussein's capacity to produce weapons
of mass destruction before he uses them.
Count on the American public's (and the media's) inability to remember
anything from one year to the next. The Rove machine gave Bush tough
talking points on corporate fraud when the newspapers were full of Enron,
Global Crossing, WorldCom and Tyco, and when reporters were asking
uncomfortable questions about Bush's and Cheney's own corporate dealings.
Rove played for time, assuming that warmongering about Iraq (carefully
orchestrated to begin just a few months before the midterm elections) would
bury the issue. He was right. The administration dragged its feet on
reform, and a year out almost nothing has changed. Another example: Rove
sold the administration's $1.35 trillion tax cut in 2001 as a way to spur
the ailing economy. Obviously it had no such effect, but Rove assumed no
one would remember. Right again. Now the White House is selling the
administration's 2003 tax cut as a way to spur the ailing economy.
Keep everything under wraps. The only other administration in living memory
as secretive as this one was -- no surprise -- Richard Nixon's. Whether
it's Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force, John Ashcroft's gag orders, the White
House's anti-abortion strategy, its plan for gutting environmental
protections and regulations, or its assault on civil liberties under the
guise of homeland security, the public knows almost nothing about what's
actually occurring. Leaks are rare. Information is parceled out carefully.
Reporters who tell the story the way Rove would like it told (Bob Woodward)
get special access. All others are kept in the dark.
Cut embarrassing players loose and pretend they're exceptions. Trent Lott
was dead meat in the White House as soon as the press figured out that he
meant what he said. Rove carefully let it be known that the administration
supported Bill Frist for Senate majority leader. Rove also kept the
attention focused on Lott and off the administration (Ashcroft's racist
history as Missouri's attorney general, the administration's pending
position on the Supreme Court case about affirmative action at the
University of Michigan, Judge Charles Pickering's noisome record on civil
rights and so on). Likewise, after Harvey Pitt dug himself into a hole at
the Securities and Exchange Commission, Rove abruptly cut off his lifeline
and pretended the White House had wanted vigorous regulation all along.
Karl Rove is calling the shots. Richard Nixon would be proud. The rest of
us should be appalled.
Robert B. Reich
